Looks like someone bought it. Not sure what 20 mule team in Death Valley has to do with it.

Well, that's a tough one - I do not believe that the CP endorses any company that is selling mining claims - they are in it to make money off of the claim sales, not mining. If you do go with one, you HAVE to do the same research and go out and mark the boundries just as if you were making the claim yourself. It's no shortcut, unless you are pyrchasing a "proven" claim out of state (such as Alaska), and even then, it is extremely risky.

We do endorse doing the research, prospecting the site, and staking the claim yourself. There are many members here who will assist you along the way. They will not do it for you, but will help you do it right. I am getting a great education in fieldwork right now - something that I thought would have to wait until next year. And I am getting comfortable doing the online research, and going to the clerk & recorders offices to finalize before going to the field. I would not trade buying a claim off of ebay for the actual experience I am gaining here for anything!

I have looked into buying gold claims a little but came to the conclusion that a "good claim" is rarely up for public sale, especially at a low price. I am sure there are exceptions, but if it is a producer why would you sell so low? I think many of these gold claims for sale are scams or they are heavily worked claims that are no longer productive. My lode claim for crystals is productive and I don't think I would want to sell it unless for a price that it's worth. I recommend finding your own mineral discovery and staking your own claim. It is gratifying to do this, like being proud of a hard day's work. You can test an area as much as you want before you stake to ensure it can produce enough value to be worth it. It's much cheaper to stake and file then the price of most claims for sale.

I think the same thing about all the places that sell "paydirt." No way I'm buying any miner would sell material they haven't run through something to ensure they weren't passing along a nice find. Then selling what's left with a little taste of something to say they gave folks a shot at some gold. Or maybe I'm just cynical lol

H'mmm staking and selling mining claims. Sure winner, stuff just riddled with gold.

Thanks Mike and Caveman,

Personally I'd like to learn the esoteric process to stake my own claim, regardless of if I ended up buying. If I can scoop up an excellent location (material and actual map location) from a known entity (not these folks whom I have had some less than stellar dealings with) for a good price why not?

Where I'm coming from: Phil is the guy who initially taught me how to pan plus some, and he is/was a lifelong miner that to my knowledge didn't search out his own claim. He had 80 acres of claims up on the Arkansas by Leadville and was out pretty much everyday dredging and centrifuging to sell what he recovered each night. His story was as a young man, he kind of apprenticed under the guy who owned the claims, and when the older miner passed, he left the claims to Phil. I'm not sure what happened to him since, but would love to pick his brain more on how he maintained 80 acres of claims when I understand an individual location is 20 acres.

I've also read on this forum that Dan sold a claim for $500, so the act of buying and selling claims ostensibly isn't an issue, but rather navigating/vetting the unscrupulous folks out there. If we're to trust ewg.org's data, there's 123,457 acres claimed on 5,107 claims. While I'm sure there are folks who stake a claim and want to keep it forever, certainly there are others who for some reason or another need or want to part with their claim. It appears to me knowing how to find one of those nuggets (pun intended) is potentially just as valuable, if not more so, as knowing panning techniques or the various rules and regulations surrounding claim ownership. How do I find the Dan's of the world that are honest?

My perspective is one where I just don't know which is worth more of my time. I can't help but notice a lot of threads saying "oh yeah, all the land in that area is already claimed". If this is the case, then buying a claim is potentially the better option. I would want to verify for myself in any area I'm interested in, but seeing the number of those comments certainly isn't encouraging. If EWG is correct and there are 123k acres worth of claims, this leaves a lot of land not claimed (~66.6 million acres in CO). How much of that land is open to mineral exploration and does not have a current claim? I don't know the answers to these questions, but they would certainly help sway me one way or another on which is a better option.

Does anyone have any data, or know where it can be obtained, on how many folks are claiming their own or buying? I'm thinking something along the lines of all the available data on real estate but for mining showing transaction histories, prices paid, production records, minerals found, etc., etc. Is ewg.org accurate? If so, there hasn't been a new claim around my area (JeffCo, Clear Creek, Gilpin) since 2003...that said, I don't necessarily mind being the first in 12 years if true.

Doing a bit more digging, and since this thread started with ebay, I found what appears to be a seller with the right frame of mind that does some sales on there. Does anyone have any experience with Gold Rush Expeditions? They have an interesting scam warning around a particular individual that sounds amazingly similar to the cautions provided by Swizz, Dan, Woody and others. Their discussion, which echoes many points made here, coupled with their guarantee and history makes them appear to me to be legitimate. This is where I'd appreciate the mining veterans taking me to school and poking any holes you see in such a statement. Hell....take me to school anyway :) I enjoy learning.

Wow....I can be pretty verbose....sorry.

Is the Phil you are referencing Phil Martinez?
Leonard

Yes sir. My personal experience was that Phil was awesome. He invited me up again, and the 2nd time there was a Larry and Shirley, husband/wife team, doing some dredging while I fumbled with my sluice. They live nearby and showed me how they build a raingutter clean up sluice. I've been fortunate so far and everyone has been incredibly friendly and helpful. Unfortunately I don't know what happened to Phil; I lost his number changing phones and haven't heard back via email in about a year.

My claim is in JeffCO and it was staked and filed this year along with 2 other claims near me. Most of the others in the area were staked in the past 5 yrs. There is still lots of open territory out there! Gold may be a bit more limited but open land for gold is still there too!

Thanks Mike - That's good to know! I was/am skeptical of what I saw there. It's strange they're copyrighted from 2007-2012 according to the site, but the data is stale as of 2003. Why they'd pull 4-year old data (at a minimum) is beyond me.

Phil, Larry and Shirly are great folks.

Here's a story of a place Phil took us to.

http://golddredger.com/derryranch/commonop1.htm

This is another Phil was working with.

http://golddredger.com/derrybg.htm

I found a 3/4 pennyweight on one of Phil's claims on the Arkansas.

Leonard

That's good to hear, and I want to visit the Derry Ranch all of a sudden.

I figured it's a small community and someone would know these fine folks. Do you know if Phil's still working up there? His website is down, and I suspect he lost the email addresses from the domain as well. A google search shows there's a facebook page, but I ditched my account about 4 months ago.

BTW, my little avatar pic is me practicing what Phil had just shown me up on his claim. After I got the basics down and could see gold, he cut me loose with one of his dredges. Looking back, I did a very poor job moving material fumbling with the nozzle, but the lessons were priceless. Phil let me keep everything I found, gave me an old black finishing pan, vial and snuffer and ran the cons through his centrifuge so I had material to practice with at home. Of course I've been hooked since....

The link you put up EMac for "ewg.org" threw me off a bit. I have seen this site before researching what people find when searching this stuff to learn. Many red flags on this site I think. First I noticed the title of the page..."Who owns the west?", then says "a project of environmental working group".

Right away it's first paragraph says ......



This is not a miner friendly site as you can read!! I also looked for the info on the claim Dan and I use to own and it showed we owned 40 acres.......not true at all!! Was actually 18.77 acres. I also notices several were marked as having 21 and is also inaccurate.

There is NO place on the internet to obtain this information! Only with the proper research can one obtain this knowledge.

EMac, I actually see no problem with buying a claim from someone or entity, so long as you can verify that all the info given is accurate (and legal), that you can go out and verify the markings, and prospect the property BEFORE you allow any of your hard earned dollars to change hands. Yes there are many reasons that a good claim may be let go of. I just have questions about a company that is known to go out and make paper claims, run a ponzi scheme (which is why they were investigated by the SEC), and tries to hide their track, and make it difficult to reach a real person. That on top of the fact that they would not give the marker coordinates BEFORE you purchased the claim. Very few of these guys are reputable. You HAVE to do the research as if it were a location your are actually going to claim, and that includes the field work, checking with the BLM and county offices, etc. When I first started on CP, I had found several claims "For Sale" in Left Hand Canyon - and when I checked them out, I found that they were either Boulder County property, private land, or claims that had been abandoned years earlier and had NO CURRENT CLAIM FILED!!! Beware of these guys. They are the current "Soapy Smith's" of the current era.